Save the Best for Last
by Lissa88
Summary: A member of the CSI team is kidnapped and returns 2 years later. GCForgot to put a disclaimer. I don't own CSI or the song Save the Best for Last by Vanessa Williams.


Save the Best for Last

Gil Grissom was sitting in his office working on paperwork with Sofia Curtis across from him. There concentration was broken and they were startled by the ringing of the phone. Grissom answered it.  
"Grissom."

"Gil, its Jim…." Brass said sullenly.

"What's wrong?"

"It's Catherine – She's been kidnapped."

"What? When…. Where?

"We aren't sure. There was a note left saying she was taken. Day shift is working it."

"Oh my god. Where's Lindsey?"

"Calm down. Lindsey's okay. Well as okay as can be expected when her mother's been taken. She was with Nancy at the time."

"That's good. I want one of my people working this case."

"But –"

"No buts. No conflict of interest, this is Catherine and I want one of our guys working on this."

"Alright. Sara, but that's it. Just Sara."

"Fine, just Sara. Just please – find her." He said very softly.

"We'll do our best Gil."

Grissom hung up with Jim and placed his head in his hands.

"Something wrong?" the blonde across from him asked.

"Its uh, Catherine. She was kidnapped."

"Oh my goodness. Are we working this now?"

"No dayshift." He answered with a hint of disappointment. "but Sara's helping."

"I'm sorry Grissom. We have nothing but an unknown print on the paper. We're at a dead end and we've been working this case for a week. We've checked every millimeter of Catherine's house and office. There's nothing more we can do. It's a dead end." Sara told her supervisor.

"Sara, there has to be something. ANYTHING!"

"There isn't Grissom. We have to throw in the towel. Maybe we'll have more evidence if and when we find her."

"You're talking about it like she's dead."

"Well there's a very good possibility she is! You have to think realistically Grissom. She's gone…. And if she is alive, she probably isn't coming back."

"That's not very optimistic."

"Well you know better then anyone in this job, we shouldn't be optimistic. I know she's your friend Gil. She's everyone's. We all miss her, but we have to accept the facts. We have no evidence, we have no suspects. We have to close the case."

He sighed heavily. "You're right. I have to face reality. All we have is a print and nothing else. We have nothing to go off of."

"I'm so sorry." She said in a whisper.

2 years later

Grissom walked into the hotel room at the Rampart where the bus boy was lying lifeless on the carpet of the suite.

"Jim." Greeted Grissom.

"Hey Gil, just got the word of your engagement. Congrats. Get Sara a ring yet?"

"No not yet. She's going to pick it herself. What do we got?"

"419. Thomas Lester. Guy's up here delivering room service, ends up dead." Grissom crouched down beside the body where David was observing the body.

"Bullet wound directly to the heart. Liver temps about 92. He's been dead about 3 hours." David told Grissom. He then got up as Greg came in the room.

"A lot of people end up dead when they're affiliated with this hotel. Odd." Greg said.

"Well, we'll see if good ol' Sam Braun's at it again." Jim stated.

Greg started photographing the body and then the coroner took him away. He then started photographing the rest of the room.

"Who is the room registered to Jim?" Grissom asked.

"A Mr. and Mrs. Jafar Sadan. Couple visiting from the Middle East." Grissom looked at the couple and observed their clothing. The man wore clothes customary of the Middle East and the woman wore a hijab and a robe typical of that from Afghanistan or Iraq. "They claimed not to be in the room at the time."

"Well, take 'em back to the lab for questioning." Grissom said flatly while still observing the room.

"Will do." was Brass' simple reply.

"Mr. Sadan we have a warrant for yours and your wife's prints." Grissom said in the interrogation room. Jafar then said something to his wife in Arabic. Grissom looked at the couple and tried to distinguish what he was saying.  
"I was telling her what you were going to do." Explained Jafar.

"Oh." He then took their prints and gave them to Greg who was sitting beside them as he took them to Jaqui Franco in the print lab. Greg returned a couple of minutes later to the interrogation room.

"Mr. Sadan, where we you at the time when Thomas Lester was in your room?" Grissom asked.

"Me and Jazira were out to dinner. We returned to find the boy dead in our room. The door was closed and locked I do not know how the murderer got into our room, let alone the boy." The man told Grissom.

"Had you met the deceased at any time? Did he bring you room service before or wait on you down in the restaurant downstairs?"

"No I had not seen him before."

"And you Mrs. Sadan?" Grissom asked. She starred at him sadly but gave no reply.

"My wife does not speak English."

"Oh well could you –" Jaqui cut him off by interrupting and opening the door.

"Grissom I need to speak with you." He walked over to the door.

"Can't this wait?" he whispered agitated.

"No this is really important."

"Fine." He said even more annoyed. He and Jaqui exited the room and were walking down the hall.

"I ran the prints that Greg gave me from the couple. One of them came up in AFIS as an unknown print in a kidnapping 2 years ago."

"Quicker Jaqui."

"The case was Catherine's." Silence.

"So this is the guy whose prints were on that note?"

"Yeah, but the woman's prints. They belong to an employee who worked here two years ago. I give you one guess." There was a loooong pause.

"Catherine! That woman in there is Catherine. Oh my god." He said as he started running the other way. Jaqui grabbed his arm and stopped him.

"Gil, you cannot do anything to this guy, you have Brass arrest him, don't you dare touch him. I know how upset you were about Catherine being taken."

"Don't worry Jaqui. I won't hurt him." She walked back down the hallway. "Much." He said under his breath. He began walking back to the interrogation room and immediately walked to Brass and whispered something to him. Brass stared at him for a moment and then back at Jafar. He walked over to him and roughly stood him up, semi-slammed him into the wall and cuffed him.

"You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney, if you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you."

"What the hell are you doing, you can't arrest me? What did I do!"

"You stole a very good friend of mine… and now we're stealing her back." He walked out of the room and left Catherine and Grissom alone. Grissom walked over to Catherine and pulled her up and into a hug. She started to sob and Grissom held back threatening tears as well.

"We thought we lost you. I'm so happy you're okay." He whispered softly to her while he rubbed her back as she continued to cry into his shirt.

"But I'm not okay Gil. You have no idea what they did to me there." She sobbed more.

"Its alright. You're safe now. It's all going to be okay."

A month later Catherine and Grissom were at his house, on Grissom's night off, talking.

"So how did your appointment go today?" he asked her.

"Good. The doctor says I shouldn't have to go daily anymore, just monthly. She said I could go back to work now also… if I have a job to go back to?"

"Of course you do Cath. We worked it all out already. Warrick's giving up the swing shift so you can have it back-" She cut him off.

"I can't take it from him. He's been supervisor since I've been gone. It's not mine anymore."

"Catherine, he volunteered it, alright? He doesn't really enjoy all that paperwork anyway." He smiled at her and she smiled back.

"So have you set a date?" she asked, indicating the wedding. He was confused.

"A date?"

"You and Sara. Have you set a date for the wedding?"

"Oh. Yeah, we're sending the invitations out tomorrow. The 28th of next month at St. Valentine's." he explained to her. There was a long pause before she broke the awkward silence between them.

"Are you happy Gil?" He took what seemed an eternity to think it out and answer.

"Yeah, I am… at least – I thought I was. I don't know why at all Cath and I don't pretend to know but it's just weird having you back here."

"How so do you mean?" she was curious as to what he was saying to her.

" Again, I don't know why but I think maybe the reason I never went out with Sara or dated her is because of you. You kept me from having a relationship with her. I guess the most logical explanation I could think of is that you caused me to think of her more as a daughter then a girlfriend. But then you left, and… we started seeing each other, one thing led to another and now a year and a half later, we're engaged. Only now – " he paused.

"I'm back." She completed his statement with a certain sadness.

"Yeah. And its like that feeling is returning. I'm thinking of her more as a daughter again. I don't know why but I am."

"Do you think it'd be fair to marry her when you aren't in love with her?" she said somewhat agitated.

"I didn't say I wasn't in love with her."

"Then what are you saying Grissom? What?" They made eye contact and just stared for a while before he spoke.

"I'm saying that I'm confused."

"About what?" she said, her voice laced with softness this time.

"My feelings. My feelings towards Sara, my feelings towards this wedding, my feelings towards –" he stopped himself.

"You're feelings towards… what?"

"My feelings towards you. Catherine since you came back I've just been thinking a lot about this. A lot about you and its making me unsure about Sara. Its making me ask myself, 'Do I really want to marry her?'".

"What exactly are you saying here? What do you mean by your feelings towards me?" she was rather curious at this point and very anxious.

"I've always thought of you as my friend Catherine. When you were taken, I just couldn't make myself get over it. I missed you and I didn't want to think about you dead somewhere and we didn't even know where. I didn't want Lindsey to go without a mother and a father. And when you were taken I wondered why I was feeling this way, why I was so worried. It made me think about how I really felt about you. I guess for a while I thought… I thought I was maybe in love with you. But I quickly dismissed the idea, thinking we were always just friends and if we were meant to be anything more it would've happened by then. Catherine, I'm just really confused about what I feel for you, that's all I'm saying." Catherine sat there in a semi state of shock. Did she hear right? Did Gil Grissom just say he had feelings for her, and thought maybe he was in love with her? She finally found enough strength to say something.

"Are you saying you're… in love with me?"

He sighed. "Catherine – I don't know." She stared at him, quite confused at this point and she watched as he stared back at her. They didn't dare break their stare. Catherine grew more and more nervous at what he may be revealing to her and she didn't know what to do. Then they did something that surprised them both. They both leaned in and their lips touched. Catherine pulled back to say something.

"This isn't right." She said. "You're engaged. We shouldn't be doing this." Regardless of her words, Grissom leaned in again for another kiss, but this one filled with more passion and depth then their former lip touching. He wrapped his arms around her waist and she forgot all the doubt she was feeling while her arms snaked around his neck. It didn't occur to either of them that they were moving incredibly fast as Gil got up off the couch with Catherine and him still attached at the lips and he led her to his bedroom while they still never separated.

The next morning, Grissom awoke to cluttering going on in his bedroom. He opened his eyes and sat up. He saw Catherine, fully dressed, sitting in the chair and putting on her shoes. He stared at her until she looked up to see he was awake. They just stared at each other for about a minute.

"Sorry I woke you." She apologized. "I woke up and wanted to get going. I gotta get home."

She began to walk towards the door and Grissom got out of the bed and grabbed her arm.

"Are we even going to talk about what happened last night?" he asked.

"There's nothing to talk about Grissom. Sara loves you, that's all there is to it." She walked out of the bedroom and Grissom heard the door to his apartment slam shut.

It was a month later, 2 days before the wedding. Catherine had returned to work and seemed to be avoiding Grissom as much as possible. Grissom didn't do much to help the situation along. He shut out everybody, even his fiancée. He was having trouble sorting out his feelings and was currently having all these second thoughts about the wedding. I should marry Sara. he thought. Catherine doesn't love me, she made that very clear. And I don't love her, right? No, I love Sara and I'm going to marry her. I have to. And that was all he thought of it. He knew he had to marry Sara, he couldn't hurt her that way. He didn't want to hurt Catherine, but she's the one who didn't want to talk about it, so he left it alone.

It was the day of the wedding and everybody was there, including Catherine. She acted happy that day and didn't let anyone know she was being torn up inside. Grissom looked at her from the alter. The flower girl was walking down the aisle and Sara was supposed to follow after. Grissom and everyone else were surprised to not see her coming. It had been about 5 minutes until Grissom decided to investigate and find out where she was. He went back into the bride's room and found Sara sitting it the chair. She looked stunning in her beautiful white, halter gown with sequin beading. She wore a lovely looking veil that came down to her lower back. He looked at her face and saw that her mascara had been running. She had been crying and when she saw him silent tears slipped down her cheeks again. Grissom stood there waiting for an explanation. After a long time, she began.

"Gil, I can't marry you." She waited for him to ask why or to yell at her or anything but he remained silent with a calm look on his face waiting for her to continue. " Something happened. I – God I feel horrible about this. I haven't exactly been a very… faithful fiancée." Now Grissom's calm demeanor turned into a questioning look. " Me and Nick, something happened between us." Grissom fought the urge to smile. Here he was this whole time beating himself up about not being faithful when Sara was off doing Nick. "I don't love you Grissom, and I'm so sorry. I just, I can't marry you." She couldn't bear to look him in the face. She was so ashamed of herself and even more ashamed that she waited this long to tell him. Grissom now couldn't help but let out a small smirk. Sara looked up and saw this and had a very confused look cross over her face. He let out a small chuckle and looked back at Sara. Then he sighed and stopped smiling.

"Sara, if you love Nick and not me, who am I to stop you? Something happened between you and you found out now that you want to be with him and not me. That's great you found out before we got married, isn't it?" She was still very, very confused as to why he was being so calm.

"I have an idea." He stated. "Since the tickets are already paid for, why don't you take Nick to Jamaica right now." She was in shock now.

"Gil, why aren't you yelling at me? You're telling me to take the man I cheated with on you on our honeymoon? And you were smiling! I mean, I was hoping you'd take it good but this is just downright wrong!"

"Sara, I wasn't too sure about the wedding either. It will all get cleared up later okay? I'm happy for you and Nick, really. And I'm not going to say I'm not somewhat disappointed, but it's your life and I'm living with that. I'll go get Nick and send him out and you guys can head off to the airport. I'll send away all the guests, don't worry about it."

"I'm still really, really confused, but I guess I should get out of here before you snap. Or maybe you're already there. All right send Nick out, and we'll go." Grissom headed for the door.

"Grissom? – I really am sorry and… thank you." He gave her a bittersweet smile before exiting the room.

_Sometimes the snow comes down in June  
Sometimes the sun goes round the moon  
I see the passion in your eyes  
Sometimes it's all a big surprise  
Cause there was a time when all I did was wish  
You'd tell me this was love  
It's not the way I hoped or how I planned  
But somehow it's enough_

It all happened so fast. Nick and Sara had gone away on Grissom and Sara's honeymoon. He had sent away all the guests and he was now sitting in the church by himself. Even the priest was gone at the moment. He sat in the first pew and just stared off into space. Catherine walked into the church and spotted Grissom sitting in the pew deep in thought. She smiled to herself before slowly approaching Grissom. She walked up and stood beside where he was sitting and it broke his concentration. She was smiling sadly at him and he smiled back. She sat down beside him, took his hand, and laced his fingers in hers.

_And now we're standing face-to-face  
Isn't this world a crazy place  
Just when I thought our chance had passed  
You go and save the best for last  
All of the nights you came to me  
When some silly girl had set you free  
You wondered how you'd make it through_

_I wondered what was wrong with you_

_Cause how could you give your love to someone else  
And share your dreams with me  
Sometimes the very thing you're looking for  
Is the one thing you can't see_

She stood up and pulled him with her. They began to walk to the parking lot in silence still hand-in-hand. She released his hand to find the keys to her car when he grabbed her arm and she looked up. Blue met blue and then he pushed her body up against the Tahoe while still holding her wrist. He looked deep into her eyes and she looked back, both only inches away from each other's faces.

_But now we're standing face-to-face  
Isn't this world a crazy place  
Just when I thought our chance had passed  
You go and save the best for last  
Sometimes the very thing you're looking for  
Is the one thing you can't see_

Gil leaned in and kissed Catherine softly, but still it was a kiss full of passion and desire. She eagerly kissed him back by wrapping her arms as tightly as she could around his neck, as if holding on for dear life and the kiss deepened. They both pulled back, but hesitantly, like the world was in slow motion and they were moving too fast for it. Their eyes met, and they both shared a loving smile.

"I love you Catherine. I know that now." She echoed his words.

"I love you too." She grinned widely. "Come on. Let's go home." They got into the car and drove away to live their happily ever after one day at a time.

_Sometimes the snow comes down in June  
Sometimes the sun goes round the moon  
Just when I thought our chance had passed  
You go and save the best for last  
You went and saved the best for last_


End file.
